Thursday, December 30, 2010

Brandon Boykin was kind enough to take a few minutes of his time to speak with Mr. Blog Man on Wednesday. Well, Boykin didn’t have any choice, as it was a designated media availability and I cornered him before it was time to leave.

Still, the junior cornerback and kick returner was kind enough to answer questions about Georgia’s motivation for the Liberty Bowl, how he evaluates his season, and his upcoming decision on whether to go pro.

SE: The UCF guys were in here earlier saying this game is important for them, to show out on national television, win their first bowl game, etc. What’s the motivation for you all?

BB: It’s just as important for us. Having a season like we had, not really being used to it, this game is for our reputation. And our reputation is on the line, a winning season is on the line. We want our seniors to go out on top, we don’t want them to go out on their senior year with a losing record. We know Central Florida is going to be ready, they’re trying to build their program off this game. But at the same time we’ve got a lot to lose, and a lot to gain too, as far as how we handled this season and all the adversity. So we’ll be ready.

SE: A lot of teams that finished 6-6 with the expectations you all had would’ve been ready to pack it in, or would have already. You guys obviously didn’t. What was the reason there?

BB: Because we knew what we were capable of doing from the jump. Coming into this season nobody expected us to lose maybe even three games. We had the talent to do it, when stuff started not happening our way, we kind of came back as a collective group, after that fourth loss, and told ourselves that if we wanted to make anything good out of this season we just had to shut it down right now and keep going. I think that just this team is really, really good at handling adversity. This whole season, people saw that throughout the year. This win would cap that off.

SE: How do you reflect on your season, individually?

BB: (Thinks a few seconds). I think there were things I did well. I feel like coming into a new defensive scheme, not really knowing what to expect, we all helped each other learn it. I can’t really say, I can’t compare it to last year because it was a totally different scheme. I guess you’d have to give me another year to say I did really well this year as opposed to last year. But in the new scheme, I think everybody did as best as they could. But some things didn’t go our way.

SE: As far as stuff you could’ve done better, anything in particular?

BB: Not really. Coverage-wise I think I played pretty well honestly. A couple games I felt like I didn’t get thrown to, but a couple games I did. There might have been a couple plays in a couple games where I didn’t make it; I’d have to go back and watch film and see. But (during) the season you can’t really do that, but after the season I’m sure there’ll be a lot of things I’ll look back and say (could’ve been done better).

SE: You mentioned giving yourself another year to look back on it. Are you definitely thinking you’re leaning that way, to come back?

BB: I’m not leaning any type of way. Like I told someone else earlier, we don’t have enough information to make any decisions. So when people ask if I’m doing anything and I say I don’t know, honestly it’s because we don’t have enough information. I feel like after the bowl we’ll have a lot more information to give everyone a more in-depth summary of what we’re thinking.

SE: It’s the advisory committee you’re waiting on?

BB: Yes.

SE: Is there any round number or anything you’d be looking at?

BB: I can’t really say right now because I don’t know what it’s gonna say. After the bowl, you get more information. You’ve got a lot more time to think. But right now we’re not focusing on that at all. We’ve got this game to play.SE: From a personal standpoint, you got into the school of Journalism, but the NFL is what it is. How does all that stuff figure in?

BB: Just my opinion as to whether I think I’m ready to play. Do I feel like whatever grade I feel like is good enough for me. Do I feel like my coaches view me as someone that could play at the next level. Stuff like that.

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About the Author

Seth Emerson has been covering the SEC and Georgia (on and off) since 2002. He worked at the Albany Herald from 2002-05, then spent five years at The State in Columbia, S.C., covering South Carolina. He returned to Athens in August of 2010, only to find that David Pollack and David Greene were no longer playing for the Bulldogs. Adjustments were made.

Emerson is originally from Silver Spring, Md., and graduated from Maryland in 1998 with a degree in journalism and a minor in getting lost on the way to practically everywhere. Then he spent four years at The Washington Post, covering small colleges, a couple NCAA basketball tournaments, and on one glorious day, was yelled at by Tony Kornheiser. It was probably at The Post that he also learned to write in the third person.

These days he lives in Athens with his beloved and somewhat wimpy dog, Archie. Together they fight crime at night in northeast Georgia, except on nights there is no crime, in which case they sit at home, sip on white wine and watch reruns of "Mad Men."